What we know about California Forever, Flannery Associates in Solano County
We're looking into the massive, years-long Solano County land grab to create a start-up city.
After spending half a decade discreetly buying land, Flannery Associates LLC has acquired more than 50,000 acres and is ready to move on with its idea of creating a new city in Solano County. Something it's currently calling California Forever.
ABC10 is looking into Flannery Associates and what it wants to do in Solano County. Here's what we know so far.
What is California Forever? City plan years in the making
California Forever planners describe the plan as a "dynamic new community, with homes people can afford in safe, walkable neighborhoods" offering jobs, grocery stores, bars and restaurants, civic institutions, schools, parks and more. They say folks can expect the new city to be a classic, American urban block structure similar to downtown Rio Vista, Vallejo and Fairfield.
The city itself would sit between Travis Air Force Base and Rio Vista and be roughly 17,500 acres (down from their Jan. 17 pitch of 18,600) — Vacaville is roughly 18,830 acres and Rio Vista is roughly 4,544 acres. Plans show it would be connected to Rio Vista through shared parks, but not touch Travis AFB.
City planners say they amended their plan for the second time Feb. 14 to "remove any remaining impacts on the base’s mission," resulting in the below changes.
Experts on the project include multiple companies who have worked in the Bay Area, including landscaping for Treasure Island, redeveloping Oakland's Brooklyn Basin, civil engineering for Mountain House and a water supply planning company that has worked on dozens of plans throughout the state.
California Forever city renderings, map designs
Ballot initiative Signatures, billboards and commercials
The "East Solano Homes, Jobs and Clean Energy Initiative" has begun collecting signatures in an attempt to appear on the Solano County November 2024 ballot. California Forever needs just over 13,000 signatures from registered voters within Solano County to appear on the ballot.
The Solano County Registrar of Voters Office says they've been receiving many reports of "voters being misinformed by circulators collecting signatures" and put out a statement to inform voters of their rights.
"The freedom to petition your government through the initiative process is central to our democracy," said spokesperson Tim Flanagan. "We strongly encourage voters to carefully read petitions before signing them to ensure they are acting on their convictions instead of misinformation."
California Forever said in a statement that the signature gatherers are professionals who have done this job for many other statewide and local ballot initiatives.
"A small but vocal group of opponents are attempting to create confusion and prevent Solano County voters from deciding what future they want for themselves and their children. They will not succeed," said Matthew Rodriguez, initiative campaign. "We encourage everyone considering whether or not to sign our petition to read the fine print, ask questions and keep an open mind — and let the voters decide."
Please note there is only one approved ballot initiative going around collecting signatures in Solano County — the one asking voters to rezone 25,200 acres of Solano County agricultural land for a new community.
Anyone who signed the petition and wishes to revoke their signature can do so by filling out this form.
Here's the full California Forever proposed ballot initiative. See the entire redline document showing changes made between the amended plan posted Jan. 29 compared to the revised one posted Feb. 14 below.
Who is Flannery Associates? Mystery uncovered
Investors of the mystery group buying up land in Solano County were identified as multiple Silicon Valley billionaires by a consultant representing the company.
The company, Flannery Associates LLC, has been shrouded in secrecy for the past five years. It was established in Delaware in late January of 2018 and bought its first piece of Solano County land just ten days later. No one knew who they were until light was shed in August.
Brian Brokaw, a Sacramento-based public relations consultant, represents Flannery Associates. He told ABC10 that some of the investors include: Goldman Sachs trader Jan Sramek, billionaire Michael Moritz, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, Andreessen Horowitz investors Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon, Stripe co-founders Patrick and John Collison, founder of the Emerson Collective Laurene Powell Jobs, and investors Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross, among others.
RELATED: Silicon Valley elite identified as mystery company buying land in Solano County, representative says
The controversy What residents and local leaders are saying
Local leaders and elected officials have met with Sramek to discuss their idea of a new city. Some residents were also polled by Flannery Associates to gauge public opinion.
California State Senator Bill Dodd and U.S. Representative Mike Thompson said they don't think this new city will actually see the light of day.
"This is going to be probably one of the most interesting land use developments that we've seen in the Bay Area in quite some time," said Dodd.
Thompson says he doesn’t know if there’s structure to their idea yet, and that his conversation with Sramek was a "dream and maybe a vision, but (not) a plan."
Residents have taken to expressing their concerns for water management, fire risk, overpopulation and encroaching on existing communities online, in city council meetings and to lawmakers. There are also national security concerns because of how close the land is to Travis Air Force Base.
A new group, the Solano Together Coalition, formed to oppose the project. It is composed of the Solano County Orderly Growth Committee, the Greenbelt Alliance and the Sierra Club.
They held their first meeting on the issue Feb. 4, 2023 where city, county and state officials expressed their concerns over the new city encroaching in on Travis AFB training zones. Read more about the meeting HERE.
An estimated 200,000 Solano County registered voters received a letter in the mail from Sramek along with another survey asking for input on the project. Full results have never been released. The full survey can be found below:
Legal battles Flannery Associates sues ranchers, family trusts, farmers
Flannery Associates filed a lawsuit in May of 2023 against dozens of farmers, family trusts, ranchers and individuals accusing them of engaging in an "illegal price-fixing conspiracy regarding the sale of their properties."
They're seeking $510 million in damages citing: overpayment of properties and lost profits from being unable to purchase properties, according to complaint Flannery Associates LLC v. Barnes Family Ranch Associates, LLC, et al.
Farmers being sued requested a dismissal of the suit. U.S. District Judge Troy Nunley denied the farmers motion to dismiss in April writing, in part, “statements do reveal there was some sort of agreement among Defendants to fix the price of land in Solano County.”
Albert Medvitz and Jeanna McCormack, of McCormack Sheep and Grain near Rio Vista, are referenced as “neighbors and friends of conspirators” in the lawsuit. They own the land making the California Forever project disconnected along the Sacramento River.
"It’s extremely important land for agriculture, especially with climate change because it doesn’t take as much water to farm out here and it has a deep heritage, especially for my wife Jeanne," said Medvitz.
They were offered $20 million and turned it down to be offered $30 million two months later. While they're not named in the below lawsuit, Medvitz says he's worried they could be sued next. See the full lawsuit below:
City offices, townhalls Where the community can speak directly to Flannery
- Nov. 29, 2023: Vallejo Town Hall at the Vallejo Naval Historical Museum
- Dec. 5, 2023: Rio Vista Town Hall at Legion Hall at the Memorial Veterans Building
- Dec. 6, 2023: Vacaville Town Hall at the Journey Theater
- Dec. 7, 2023: Fairfield/Suisun Town Hall at Willow Hall Fairfield Community Center
- Dec. 14, 2023: Benicia Town Hall at Charles P. Stone Hall and Spenger Memorial Garden at the Benicia Historical Museum
- Dec. 18, 2023: Dixon Town Hall at Dixon Olde Vets Hall
A few offices have opened where the public can "stop by to talk to our team and learn the facts about our project," according to Sramek. More locations may open in the future.
- Vacaville office: 965 Alamo Dr., Vacaville, CA 95687
- Vallejo office: 420 Virginia St. Suite 1A, Vallejo, CA 94590
- Fairfield office: 1350 Travis Blvd. Suite 15-11B (Solano Town Mall, second floor by Macy’s), Fairfield, CA 94533
- Rio Vista office: 241 Main St. Rio Vista, CA 94571
Offices are open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday until 3 p.m.
Community based advisory committee From the Solano County sheriff to decades long residents
California Forever announced their new 21 person advisory committee made up of Solano County community members proposed by city officials, including the Solano County sheriff, CEO of Visit Fairfield and retired Travis Air Force Base officials among others. See the full list of all 21 members HERE.
"They’ve got a good representation of different points of view. There are definitely some skeptics in the room. My position is one of neutrality," said Anand Patel, President and CEO of Visit Fairfield.
Patel sits on the new California Forever Community Advisory Committee, which took roughly 10 weeks to field members before establishing the group, according to Sramek.
Sramek told ABC10 no one on the board is receiving any type of compensation for their engagement and Patel echoes that, saying he has only been given a sandwich during one of the meetings.
What about water? A changing plan
After being turned away in two different meetings in 2023, California Forever is tells ABC10 they’re dropping the idea of using the North Bay Aqueduct altogether.
The change comes after the Solano County Water Agency voted to cease talking to Flannery Associates about their California Forever plan in regard to water use and Rio Vista rejecting their city lawyers to represent the California Forever project on water rights.
Sramek says they will find another way to get water, like using what's available on the land they've purchased and buying water from outside agencies.
Who's driving California Forever? A one-on-one with Flannery's CEO
Sramek, a former Goldman Sachs trader, said he has a fascination for melding European and American city formats together. He grew interested in walkable cities after living in them for years.
"I just saw the impact that that has on community, health, relationships, economic opportunity and mobility," he told ABC10. "Then about six, seven years ago, I discovered this site and got to know Solano County. (I) eventually had the idea that you could build one of (those cities) here in a way that would really bring up the whole community and be able to sell assets to Solano County."
Here are four main takeaways from our one-on-one conversation with Sramek:
- Sramek and Flannery Associates have been "very methodical about it from the beginning" and have no regrets about the secrecy behind buying land over the years.
- California Forever will be a part of Solano County, something other big tech efforts often try to shy away from. Sramek says the "government in Solano County is very well run, the county's very well run, we have no plans to build any kind of utopia or any kind of city of different governance."
- No additional land is going to be purchased as Sramek said they "have everything we need" for the project. The two parcels of land in Sacramento County are being sold off but were purchased as part of a larger land deal with owners of land in Solano County.
- Sramek said the goal is to break ground in less than 10 years.
Hear it for yourself with our extended interview with Jan Sramek:
Where is the land? Largest land owner in Solano County
The land owned spans across Solano County, but the proposed city would only sit between Rio Vista and Suisun City, if approved.
A land exchange was proposed to "protect Travis Air Force Base, create a 15,000-acre contiguous preserve on the Jepson Prairie and fund the completion of the Solano County Habitat Conservation Plan."
If approved as currently written, 1,403 acres from public agencies would be swapped in exchange for 1,573 acres California Forever already owns. The deal also promises $1 million to the completion of the Solano County Habitat Conservation Plan.
The proposal would have to be approved by voters via a separate ballot measure from approving city plans in November 2024 to actually go through. It is unclear how officials feel about this swap or if there have been any updates in regard to the offer. Read the entire proposal HERE.
See the map below for an entire look at what exactly makes Flannery Associates the largest land owner in Solano County.
